“Get Beal off okay?” she heard Carlin call out. His massive form emerged out of the distant shadows.
“Just now,” she replied, turning toward him. “How about the other one?”
“Refused medical treatment,” Carlin said. “Any sign of Miller?”
Hayward scowled. “He’s probably in some Atlantic Avenue bar by now, sucking down beer and bragging about his exploits. That’s how it works, right? He’ll get a promotion, and we’ll get letters of caution for insubordination.”
“Maybe other times it works that way,” Carlin said with a knowing smile. “But not this time.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hayward asked, then continued without giving Carlin time to answer: “No way to tell what Miller did or didn’t do. Guess we’d better report in.” She grabbed at her radio, snapping it on. But torrents of noise, static, and panic came pouring from every band.
... Moving toward the Great Lawn, we need more manpower to… Got eight of them but I can’t hold them much longer, if that wagon doesn’t come soon they’ll just melt away into the dark… I called for a medevac thirty goddamn minutes ago; we got people hurt up here… Christ, they’ve gotta seal that southern quadrant; more keep coming in all the time…
Hayward snapped the radio off and snugged it back into her belt, then motioned Carlin to follow her down to the squad car at the next corner. A police officer in riot gear stood beside it, vigilantly scanning the street, shotgun in hand.
“Where’s command for this operation?” Hayward asked.
The policeman tipped up his face shield and looked at her. “There’s a forward command post in the Castle,” he said. “That’s what dispatch says, anyway. Things are kinda disorganized right now, as if you couldn’t tell.”
“Belvedere Castle.” Hayward turned toward Carlin. “We’d better head for it.”
As they ran down Central Park West, Hayward was strangely reminded of her visit to a Hollywood back lot two years before. She remembered walking down the ersatz Manhattan street on which countless musicals and gangster films had been shot. She’d seen phony street lamps, shop fronts, fire hydrants… everything but people. At the time, common sense had told her that a mere hundred yards away were bustling, vibrant California streets. Yet the still emptiness of the lot had seemed almost spectral.
Tonight, Central Park West felt the same way. Though she could hear the distant honking of car horns and the whistle of sirens—and though she knew that, within the Park itself, police were massing to stop the rioting and confusion—this darkened avenue seemed ghostly and unreal. Only the occasional vigilant doorman, curious resident, or police checkpoint broke the atmosphere of a ghost street.
“Holy shit,” Carlin muttered at her side. “Would you look at that.” Hayward glanced up, and her reverie instantly dissolved.
It was like crossing a demilitarized zone from order into chaos. To the south, across 65th Street, they saw a sea of ruin. Lobby windows were smashed, awnings over elegant entrances were torn to shreds and flapping idly in the breeze. The police presence here was stronger, the blue-painted barricades omnipresent. Cars along the curbs were missing windows and windshields. A few blocks down, a police tow truck with flashing yellow lights was removing the smoking skeleton of a taxi.
“Looks like some pretty pissed off mole people came through here,” Hayward murmured.
They cut across the street, angling toward the drive and heading into the Park. After the destruction they’d just passed, the narrow asphalt paths seemed quiet and deserted. But the smashed benches, overturned trash cans, and smoldering garbage bore mute testimony to what had taken place here not long before. And the noise that drifted toward them from the interior of the Park gave promise of even greater pandemonium to come.
Suddenly Hayward stopped short, motioning Carlin to do the same. Ahead in the dark she could make out a group of people—how many she could not be certain—swaggering in the direction of the Great Lawn. Can’t be cops,she thought. They’re not wearing riot helmets, or even hats.A noisy burst of hooting and cursing from the group confirmed her suspicion.
She moved forward quickly, running on the balls of her feet to minimize noise. At ten yards back she stopped. “Halt!” she said, hand on her service piece. “Police officers!”
The group came to a ragged stop, then turned back to look at her. Four, no, five men, youngish, dressed in sports jackets and polo shirts. Her eyes took in the visible weapons: two aluminum bats and what looked like a kitchen carving knife.
They stared at her, faces flushed, grins still on their youthful faces.
“Yeah?” one of them said, taking a step forward.
“Stop right there,” Hayward said. The man stopped. “Now, why don’t you boys tell me exactly where you’re headed?”
The man in front scoffed at the stupidity of the question, indicating the interior of the Park with the merest jerk of his head.
“We’re here to take care of business,” came a voice from the group.
Hayward shook her head. “What’s going on there is none of your business.”
“The hell it isn’t,” the one in front snapped. “We’ve got friends there, getting the shit beat out of them by a bunch of goddamn bums. There’s no way we’re going to let that go on.” He took another step forward.
“This is a police matter,” Hayward said.
“The police haven’t done jack shit,” the man replied. “Look around. You’ve let this scum trash our city.”
“We heard they killed twenty, thirty people already!” came the slurred voice of a man holding up a cellular phone. “Including Mrs. Wisher. They’re trashing the city. They got bastards from the East Village and Soho to help them out. Goddamn NYU activists. Our friends need help.”
“Got that?” said the one in front. “So get out of the way, lady.” He took another step forward.
“You take another step and I’ll part your hair with this;” Hayward said, slipping her hand from her gun to her baton and sliding it smoothly from the belt ring. She felt Carlin tense beside her.
“Pretty easy for you to talk tough,” the man said scornfully. “With a gun on your belt and a goddamn human refrigerator at your side.”
“Think you can take all five of us?” said someone in the group.
“Maybe she thinks she can smother us all to death with those jugs of hers,” said another. Several grins broke out.
Hayward took a deep breath, then replaced her baton. “Officer Carlin,” she said, “please take twenty steps back.”
Carlin remained motionless.
“Do it!” she snapped.
Carlin stared at her for a moment. Then, without turning or taking his eyes from the group, he began walking backward down the path they had come.
Hayward stepped deliberately up to the lead youth. “Now listen up,” she said evenly, without taking her eyes off his. “I could take off my badge and my piece, and still kick all your sorry white-bread asses back to Scarsdale, or Greenwich, or wherever it is your mothers tuck you in at night. But I don’t need to do that. See, if you refuse to follow my instructions to the letter, then your mothers won’t be tucking you in this evening. They’ll be waiting in line at Police Plaza tomorrow morning to make your bails. And all the money, or power, or influence in the world won’t be able to remove the words intent to commit felonious assaultfrom your police record. In this state, a person convicted of a felony can neverpractice law. They can neverhold public office. And they can neverget a license to trade securities. And your daddies aren’t going to like that. Not one bit.”